John Crudele says the ad is “nauseating”, because who would ever think of giving someone a gun for Christmas?

In case you don’t know guns, an AR-7 is a semi-automatic rifle that can be used to defend your family, go hunting and — in the wrong hands — kill a lot of people.

There was an ad below that despicable introduction: “A gift for those who blaze their own trail,” followed by pictures of the AR-7 and the fact that it was available in three colors.

There was also the boilerplate comment about how the company hoped “your loved ones never actually find themselves in a life and death situation” and would only need the gun for target shooting with friends.

In case you don’t know guns any better than John Crudele does, an AR-7 is a small, lightweight rifle chambered in .22LR with an 8-round magazine. It was originally developed as a survival rifle, and has been used by the Air Force since the late 1950’s by pilots who, according to Henry; “need a small-caliber rifle they can count on should they have to punch out over a remote area.

Through the years the AR-7’s reputation for portability, ease of operation and reliability has carried over to the civilian world. Today it’s a favorite of bush pilots, backpackers and backcountry adventurers who, like their Air Force counterparts, need a rifle that’s easy to carry yet has the accuracy to reliably take down small game.

To Crudele, however, this small caliber rifle is a weapon of mass destruction.

At just 3.5 pounds, this sounds perfect also for people who want to wreak havoc on society, especially since the AR-7 “can carry a large quantity of ammunition without adding much weight to your gear.” And it can be disassembled, so you can sneak it into places like schools and movie theaters.

I don’t know why anybody wanting to “wreak havoc on society” would use a rimfire .22 rifle, especially when someone intent on doing harm could sneak a handgun into vulnerable places far easier than they could an AR-7 survival rifle.

Why do I have the feeling that Crudele’s favorite holiday movie is “A Christmas Story”, and that his favorite line is “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid?”

The columnist comes off as an ignorant boob with his anti-gun rant, which also contains this gem of a gun control argument.

Sure, there’s the Second Amendment. But the founders of this country, when they were drafting this amendment, had no idea what kind of guns would be invented two hundred years later that could kill large groups of people instantaneously.

As I’ve pointed out here previously, the Founding Fathers were certainly well aware of repeating rifles and the concept of semi-automatic firearms, because there were already gunsmiths hard at work developing the technology, even hundreds of years ago.

In fact, in 1777 Benjamin Franklin recommended that George Washington purchase 100 long guns made by a man named Joseph Belton, who believed he had revolutionize the flintlock rifle.

Belton’s rifle could allegedly shoot eight rounds in eight seconds, but the balls used in the flintlock rifle would have been far larger than a .22 rimfire rifle like the AR-7. So yes, even 200 years ago, the Founding Fathers weren’t as ignorant about firearms as Crudele is today.

I’m not sure how Crudele even ended up on Henry’s mailing list in order to receive that email advertisement, but his unhinged response tells me he’s probably on Santa’s Naughty List as well.

I don’t care what religion you believe in or what your feelings about guns happen to be, but this particular email should piss you off. I wish there was a more eloquent way of saying that but I can’t find it right now.

Companies like this give people who don’t like guns a reason to continue their dislike for them.

No, Henry’s email ad doesn’t piss me off, and people who don’t like guns, like Crudele, don’t need any ammunition from gun companies to continue their dislike. In fact, folks like Crudele will go out of their way to hate on a gun company for anything and everything they can think of, no matter what the gun companies may do.

In full disclosure, I’ve met Anthony Imperato, the president of Henry Repeating Arms, on many occasions and even had the opportunity to visit his factory in Bayonne, New Jersey a few years ago. I’m a big fan of the company and the products that they make. In fact, my wife’s favorite rifle for taking out groundhogs, fox, and other small varmints who wreak havoc on my chickens and the foundations of my outbuildings is a Henry rifle chambered in .22LR.

Thanks to Crudele’s pearl-clutching commentary, however, I’m pretty sure she’s going to find an AR-7 under the tree this Christmas.